The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) today announces the 11 musicals that have been invited by NYMF to be presented with the 12 previously announced Next Link Project productions. NYMF will also announce the festival's Developmental Reading Series and other special events in the upcoming weeks. This year's festival will be presented September 27 - October 17 at venues around Manhattan. A complete list of shows and their writers are below.
Titles for 2010's Invited Work Series include: BLOODTIES, FINGERS AND TOES, THE HISTORY OF WAR, NIGHTTIME TRAFFICE, PANDORA'S BOX, SHINE! THE Horatio Alger MUSICAL, SHOW CHOIR! THE MUSICAL, TRAILS, TRAV'LIN, VOTE FOR ME: A MUSICAL DEBATE, and WITHOUT YOU.
Since its inception in 2004, The New York Musical Theatre Festival has premiered more than 200 new musicals - more than 60 of which have gone on to award-winning productions in New York, in regional theaters and in almost every state and in 12 countries worldwide. NYMF 2004 hit Altar Boyz has played well over 1,500 performances Off-Broadway and spawned two National Tours; fellow NYMF alum [title of show] played on Broadway (Tony Award nomination, Best Book of a Musical); Next to Normal opened on Broadway last year, won The Pulitzer Prize as well as being nominated for 11 Tony Awards; and such shows as Rooms, The Big Voice: God Or Merman, My Vaudeville Man, and Meet John Doe have all gone on to have productions in New York and regionally. Yank! recently played off-Broadway and will be opening on Broadway next season.
This year's Festival will run September 27th through October 17th. Memberships on sale now and members can start booking tickets on August 1st. Single tickets will go on sale beginning September 1st. To purchase a membership, please visit www.nymf.org/member.
A complete list of the 2010 Invited Musicals follows:
BLOODTIES
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Ned Massey
He was dubbed "the next Dylan, the next Springsteen" by the man who discovered both of them. So why have you never heard of Ned Massey? After a troubled childhood and an unfulfilled shot at fame, a musician questions destiny, faith and forgiveness when he finds himself at rock bottom. With raw honesty and dark wit, Bloodties charts the meteoric trajectory of a life unwillingly propelled by divine messages and the ties that bind.
FINGERS AND TOES
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Logan Medland
Tap virtuoso and chronic womanizer "Toes" Macgrath and relationship-tormented pianist "Fingers" St. Claire have less than two weeks to create a song and dance show about Love for a big audition with a Broadway producer. But when triple-threat Molly Molloy joins them to play their ingénue, their plans spiral out of control as real romantic entanglements turn the creative process upside down. It's a modern day Singin' in the Rain!
THE HISTORY OF WAR
Book by Chip Zien, Music by Deborah Abramson, Lyrics by Amanda Yesnowitz
The History Of War is spun from the imagination of a 12 year old boy - a megalomaniac in training. As he struggles with homework assignments and peculiar visions, he conjures up seven of the most famous tyrants of all time. They did horrible things. He wants to do horrible things. His parents are worried. ...and everybody sings! ... well, almost everybody. Reality and pathology neatly converge in this terrifyingly subversive new musical.
NIGHTTIME TRAFFIC
Book, Music and Lyrics by Alex Wyse
When Max and his boyfriend Calder find themselves in a hospital awaiting Calder's heart transplant, the nurse supplies them with a mind-altering pill that slows time, turning one minute into one hour. Fueled by a sweeping contemporary score, Nighttime Traffic follows three characters through a world of thumping music, altered perceptions, and unanticipated inspiration as they spin minutes into moments and search for solace in unsettling times.
PANDORA'S BOX
Book by Maria S. Schlatter, Music and Lyrics by Glen Roven
Based on the film Gazon Maudit
Pandora, a suburban housewife, and her serial-philanderer husband, Oliver, have their love and lives turned upside down the day that Mona, a Lesbian-American handywoman, walks through their door. In this raucous, contemporary sex farce, Mona and Oliver face off in a fight to win the greatest prize of all, the love of the beautiful Pandora.
